The next day.
The entire Round Clam Town was covered in silver.
The world outside the window had turned white, with large goose-feather snow falling intermittently, having already piled up the entire yard at some unknown time.
It was one of the most favorite holidays for most children in winter.
The first thing John saw when he woke up was the snow-covered world, but he only glanced at it before burrowing back into Jennifer's warmest spot to continue sleeping in.
At eleven o'clock, the two finally woke up.
If one had to use a word to describe last night, it would be 'exhilarating'.
John had never felt so refreshed, especially when he opened the window and a cold draft hit him, accompanied by the falling snow, making the whole world white.
Snowflakes danced in the air, finally landing lightly on John's palm.
Jennifer poked her head out from under the covers and said with pleasant surprise,
"Did it snow yesterday?"
John hummed in affirmation.
"It must have been during the night."
John quite liked snowy days; the vast whiteness felt much more beautiful than usual, and he could even build snowmen for fun.
Jennifer propped herself up with one hand, the quilt slipping down to reveal half of her fragrant shoulder as she lazily said to John,
"Aren't you cold, dear? Come back in and sleep a bit more; this weather is perfect for sleeping."
John leaned down and kissed Jennifer.
"You sleep, I still need to go to school."
"Mm," Jennifer hummed sweetly, but sleeping alone was ultimately not as comfortable as sleeping with her man.
Downstairs.
John went to the corner and picked up Chucky Doll; this little devil actually tried to peek yesterday, thankfully he had Diana keep an eye on him.
Watching him still pretending to be a doll, he asked a question.
"Tell me, are you a cultist or a warlock? A murderer who can transfer souls isn't an ordinary murderer."
This question made him a bit confused.
Chucky Doll's eyeballs moved; as soon as John spoke, he knew there was no need to keep up the pretense.
The doll's mouth moved as it began to speak.
"Who are you? Why do you know my identity? Are you from the Church or another evil cult?"
"I'm barely considered an exorcist from the Church."
"Then do you know there's an evil spirit right under your nose?"
"Are you talking about Diana?"
John walked into the shadows and beckoned; a dark figure emerged and crawled in front of him. He reached out and stroked Diana's head, and she, like a pet dog, rubbed her face against John's palm in an attempt to please him.
What on earth did you do to that evil spirit!
If Chucky Doll wasn't in a doll's body, his eyes would have widened in shock.
He had spent a night with this evil spirit yesterday and knew how terrifying it was; how long would it take to train it to be as obedient as a dog?
A phantom card appeared in John's hand.
"Since you're unwilling to say, then forget it. I was just curious; whether you're a cultist or a warlock, it's all the same to me."
With his soul restricted within the doll's body, John didn't even need other methods; he could simply grab the doll and contain it.
This was probably the easiest existence he had encountered so far to contain, if not the easiest.
As the containment began.
Chucky Doll struggled continuously and finally disappeared with a loud scream.
"What the f*ck!"
On the card face, Chucky Doll's horrified expression was frozen in that instant, with a red plastic box in the background.
He always felt something was missing; this face was still a little boy's face, without scars and not holding a knife.
It really didn't fit the ruthless Chucky's demeanor.
So John took a sharp knife from the kitchen and equipped Chucky Doll with it; now it felt right.
Chucky Doll's abilities were only two: one was soul transfer, and the other was body control.
The latter allowed for quick control of the body after soul transfer, but both skills were useless to John.
Diana was better.
John had drawn 'As Shadow Follows' when he was in the basement, but he preferred to call this ability 'Shadow Dive'.
As the name suggests, it allows temporary submersion into shadows and darkness.
Chucky was Chucky Doll's nickname, which was quite 'ghostly' back in the day.
So, compared to Chucky Doll, John still preferred to call him Chucky.
After confirming that Chucky could still speak after being contained, John put on his overcoat and headed to school.
Opening the door.
John's boots crunched in the snow, making a 'gah-chi, gah-chi' sound. There were more children than adults around.
A snowball flew directly towards John.
He tilted his head, and the snowball brushed past his hair, tsk, slightly dirtying his coat hem.
Just as he was about to see which mischievous child it was.
Emma from next door had already rushed over, giving the naughty child a kick that instantly made him cry.
"That's great, Emma," John praised.
Emma, pleased with the praise, skipped two steps to John and gleefully said,
"I'll protect you like Jennifer does, so can you take me with you today?"
"No, I can't. I'm going to school because a teacher needs to see me, but you can come to my house to play anytime if you want."
"Then I'll wait for you to come back."
...
School was starting tomorrow, and John truly didn't know why the school suddenly called him in.
He entered the office.
A news report was playing on the television.
A truck carrying dangerous chemicals overturned near the town, causing all the chemicals in the cargo container to spill and leak.
FBL agents were investigating.
John saw that the FBL was even involved; could this be a simple chemical leak?
It wouldn't cause something to mutate again, like the Deformed Cannibal, would it?
Sometimes he really wanted to know what kind of heaven-defying things they were researching here that even waste materials could cause biological mutations.
The bald teacher turned around after watching the news and saw John, expressing his apology for being engrossed in the news.
Then the teacher subtly said,
"Many students at school have gone missing this holiday, and some of them are good friends with you, John. Could you try to contact them?"
"Uh, I'll try my best." John had anticipated this would happen. He only hoped that the number of people in his class would exceed ten when school started tomorrow.
They could even form a group to Crystal Lake; what else could he say?
The teacher nodded and thanked him.
"If you get any news about other classmates, call my private number immediately."
John said no problem, it was just a phone call.
But everyone knew there wasn't much hope; if the police couldn't find them, how could they expect friends to contact them?
Leaving school.
With nothing to do, John decided to go check near the town; the news just mentioned a chemical leak.
Going to see if he could contain a few cannon fodder would also be a good harvest.
The chemical leak was not in Round Clam Town.
It was in the mining town, named Prosperity Town, which was indeed very prosperous, backed by a mine.
This place was not very far from Round Clam Town.
It was only a short walk. When John arrived, he found the scene had already been cordoned off.
However, after presenting his identity as an exorcist from the Church, they immediately let him through.
The small badge Mr. Ed sent over was quite effective.
John came to the accident scene and observed for a while, finding that these chemicals, after overturning, seemed to have flowed into a pipeline.
Not a large pipeline like the Jeepers Creepers's.
But a small pipeline flowing towards Prosperity Town.
He only learned after asking the relevant personnel.
The end of the pipeline was a spider breeder's farm.
Chemical waste, spiders, mine—connecting these three, this is an Eight-Legged Freaks?
John originally didn't remember this American horror film, but then again, there was a girl named Ashley in it.
[PS: Ashley = Scarlett Johansson]